Major sea tourism initiative

A NUMBER of Moyle councillors are due to travel to Donegal this week for an announcement on a major funding project which aims to boost sea-based tourism in Ireland and Scotland.

With Ballycastle’s strategic coastal position it will be key to the ‘Sailwest’ project which will see several million Euro worth of money pumped in to a number of schemes with the aim of getting boat users and yachting enthusiasts to call in to various ports and places of interest in Ireland and the western part of Scotland.

Ballycastle’s new marina building will be funded as part of the project.

Councillors from Moyle will travel to Donegal town on March 26 for the official launch of ‘Sailwest’. The delegation will include Council Vice-Chair, Cllr Robert McIlroy (DUP), Sinn Fein councillor Paudie McShane and Cllr Madeline Black (SDLP) as well as Council officer Aidan McPeake.

Moyle has been allocated a total of 695,975 Euro for their part of the project and work is likely to begin in the early autumn, councillors were previously told.

The aim of ‘Sailwest’ is enhance water-based tourism and it involved an application to the European Interreg programme for funding for a strategic programme of development of marine leisure activities and infrastructure in an area covering Donegal, Northern Ireland and the west of Scotland.

The whole project will involve knowledge sharing, branding, marketing and eco-tourism initiatives, amongst other things.